A few of the BPCA Staff team headed off to Wensum Valley in Norwich earlier this week to host the last Regional Forum of 2017.
They were joined by nine exhibitors including the sponsors for the day 1env.
Agenda for the day
BPCA Membership Manager, Kevin ran through a refresher on the Codes of Practice are, where they come from, and why they exist before playfully testing attendees with extracts from the documents.
The morning continued with a slot from Norman Guiver of beeWatch who spoke about the new pesticide monitoring system that's soon to launch. The basic premise is that pesticide users can send out an alert whenever there's about to do a treatment. This then lets beekeepers make arrangements to protect any hives in the area.
Each of our Regional Forums are sponsored by an M&D member, and as part of the sponsorship package 1env were offered the chance to talk before the break.
On this occasion 1env were represented by Darran Lebeter who gave an introduction to 1env and their product range, focussing on giving a background to how the company runs, their factory layouts and processes and how this makes them a key distributor for the industry.
After the coffee break, which gave attendees chance to speak with the exhibitors and catch up with the BPCA team.
We were given a beginners guide to Tendering from Robert Harris of Harris Associates – keep an eye on PPC for an upcoming article on the subject that Robert's kindly offered to support!
Up next was Alex Wade from PelGar who ran through how dichotomous keys work and how you can use them to your advantage to narrow down on the insects you are going out to treat before you even arrive.
Always an interactive speaker, Alex handed out pictures of some insects and demonstrated the questions asked proving that the keys really are a tool for pest controllers to have!
We were then rounded off with a talk from David Burgess, head of fumigation at Dealey & Associates, on how you can use the BPCA member network to grow your business – explaining how EVERYONE can offer Fumigation as part of their armoury!
After each of our regional forums we ask delegates to complete the feedback forms on the back of the booklet, giving each speaker a mark out of 10, a chance to give comments on the session and most importantly provide us with information on where they would like us to visit next and what topics they would like to see covered.
Feedback from the event
All valuable sessions and very interesting
Anonymous
A great introduction to pest control, as a new member Kevin was very welcoming and helpful
Sam Furness, Pest Off
Valuable information
Tony Bennett, Millennium Pest Control
And that rounded up our 11 regional forums for 2017, another successful events programme for us and even more pest controllers attending against 2016, with a good range of speakers and exhibitors across the year.
Regional Forums in 2018
Our Regional Forums kick off again in the New Year with a trip to Deer Park Golf Club in Edinburgh, for another busy year with our members – hope to see you all at one of the events in 2018, see events page for the full list of dates.
What has been my standout moment of the RF program this year?
The outstanding turnout in Edinburgh back in January, with 70 attendees this was our biggest event yet! Let’s see if we can beat that for 2018.
Lauren Day
Events Manager
7 December 2017 | BPCA Online